All of the zoos animals receive medical care from tarantulas to tigers. A zoo veterinarian provides medical care to sick animals as well as preventative medicine. Preventative medicine, involves routine scheduled physical exams, doing blood-work, checking for diseases, treating illnesses and carefully watching new animals in quarantine to make sure they are healthy before introduction to the rest of the animal collection. By providing these routine checkups, we are able to detect and treat any health problems in their early stages - before they have a chance to endanger the animals' well being. The Washington Park Zoo is fortunate to have four area vets who assist us in our animal care needs: Dr. Rex Bailey, Dr. Larry Smith, Dr. Larry McAffe and Dr. Larry Reed.
In 2006, the old Zoo admission office was renovated into the zoo’s much needed Animal Care Clinic, which includes a treatment and recovery area.
The Zoo’s Veterinaries will continue to make “ house calls” for the larger and more dangerous animals, but this clinic will be able to serve as a home base for our medical needs
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